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According to media reports there are two suspects in the
dock: the rocket scientists' (a.k.a. the financial mathematicians) who provided the information behind the market's decisions, or the greedy bankers who only thought about quick profits and their end-of-year bonuses. We talk to David Hand, Chris Rogers and John Coates to find out who is guilty. This podcast accompanies the article Is maths to blame?

Chuck Gill caught the space bug as a child when watching Alan Shepherd launch into space. Since then he's worked as a US Air Force navigator, a satellite operator, and in the US intelligence service. These days he's busy reducing carbon emissions and preparing London for the 2012 Olympics. Plus went to see him to find out more about his career. This podcast accompanies the career interview from issue 48 of Plus.

Peter Markowich is a mathematician who likes to take pictures. At first his two interest seemed completely separate to him, but then he realised that behind every picture there is a mathematical story to tell. Plus went to see him to find out more, and ended up with an introduction to partial differential equations. This podcast accompanies the article Universal pictures.

The Fourier transform is a piece of maths that is, almost single-handedly, responsible for the digital revolution. Digital music and images would be impossible without it and it has applications in anything from
medical imaging to landmine detection. We asked Chris Budd what the Fourier
transform does, and how it does it. This podcast accompanies the Plus
article Saving lives: The mathematics of tomography.

Maths has long been a theme in the movies.
This week, Plus talks to Madeleine Shepherd, organiser of the
maths film festival at the recent Edinburgh science festival, about how
maths has been presented in the movies over the years, with particular
reference to three more recent films, Cube, Pi and Flatland. For more on
maths in the movies read the Plus article Maths, madness and movies.

This podcast accompanies the career interview in issue 47 of
Plus. Barry Phipps is the first interdisciplinary fellow with the Kettle's Yard
gallery in Cambridge. His remit is to develop projects of an
interdisciplinary nature, to find the common ground between things. This
week, Plus talks to Barry about breaking down the barriers between
artists and scientists and creating greater dialogue because, as Barry says,
science and art are intrinsically related at the centre, and there is no
stepping away from one to be another.

From the complexity of the snowflake, to the London tube map and the spiralling Andromeda galaxy, imagery has always been a vitally important ingredient of science. This week, Plus talks to John Barrow, professor of mathematics at Cambridge University and author of the new book Cosmic Imagery, about the images that have changed science, and how we have viewed science, over the centuries.

From the complexity of the snowflake, to the London tube map and the spiralling Andromeda galaxy, imagery has always been a vitally important ingredient of science. This week, Plus talks to John Barrow, professor of mathematics at Cambridge University and author of the new book Cosmic Imagery, about the images that have changed science, and how we have viewed science, over the centuries.